Cablegate: Angola - Electoral Process November Update

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R 280611Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3504
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 001235

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E. O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SOCI KMDR AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA - ELECTORAL PROCESS NOVEMBER UPDATE

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1. (U) SUMMARY
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--Registration Process Drawing Crowds
--Observers Slowly Becoming Accredited
--Some Minor Glitches
--Too Many Political Parties in Angola?
--National Council for Social Communication Constituted

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Registration Process Continues Apace
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2. (U) The GRA staged major publicity campaigns to encourage
potential voters to participate in the registration program,
resulting in thousands of people lining up daily during the first
week of registration. The GRA is distributing large quantities of
leaflets and posters in all urban centers, along with T-shirts,
baseball caps and flyers. Private and state-run media services
continue to run government paid advertisements encouraging
registration. During week one of the registration process, the
government daily Jornal de Angola ran daily human interest stories
featuring testimonials of young Angolans who have successfully
registered to vote, as well as focus pieces on electoral brigade
workers.

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Observers Slowly Becoming Accredited
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3. (SBU) NGO groups have succeeded in the past week in receiving GRA
accreditation for additional observers in the provinces. According
to information provided to the Embassy by the National Democratic
Institute (NDI), the number of accredited observers in the provinces
increased from 37 on November 15, the first day of the registration
process, to 128 observers in seven provinces by November 22.
Angolan NGOs have had difficulty in securing the timely
accreditation of observers as the National Electoral Commission
(NEC) issued instructions on the observer accreditation process less
than one week before the registration process began. In addition, a
pre-requisite for accreditation is a police clearance - a legitimate
requirement, but one which can take weeks or months to secure and
which costs between USD 25-40, a significant financial burden for
some groups. Comment: While the GRA is encouraging observer
participation, it didn't focus on this issue early enough in the
registration campaign preparations to allow sufficient ramp-up time
for the NGOs and provincial authorities to be informed on and follow
the procedures prior to the registration campaign inauguration. End
Comment.

4. (U) Embassy Luanda will also be fielding registration observers.
Per an official letter from the NEC president, we too will need to
follow the official accreditation procedures for each of our
observers as outlined in Angolan law 75/05. The Dutch Ambassador
told us that he had received a letter from the NEC expressing
interest in having EU observers.

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Some Minor Glitches
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5. (U) While the GRA, the opposition and civil society have all
deemed the registration process a success so far, some minor
incidents have occurred, many of which have been identified by the
party election monitors. In Lubango, Huila province, 18 year-old
Vasco Daniel was arrested for presenting a forged birth certificate,
which was detected by a political party monitor on the scene. PSN
monitors in Cazenga-Luanda accused brigade agents of extorting Kwz
500 (about USD 6) from potential voters to expedite registration at
a crowded registration post. Cazenga is the largest municipality
within Luanda with over 1 million inhabitants.

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Too Many Political Parties?
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6. (U) CNE President Caetano de Sousa warned politicians that
democracy and good governance were not determined by large numbers
of political parties participating in an electoral process.
Speaking at an October 2006 seminar, he noted that "Angola has too
many political parties, most having the same ideological orientation
or no orientation at all." De Sousa called for fewer, but stronger
political organizations and suggested that most parties form
coalitions before the elections. Angola currently has 105 political
parties registered with the Supreme Court of which 12 parties are
represented in parliament.

7. (U) Angolan law provides parties represented in Parliament annual
stipends from the GRA based on their number of seats, while the
remaining 93 parties were allocated $120,000 each in 2006 to assist
in organizing for the elections. This is often the only financing
available to political parties, thus most political parties can not
afford to have registration monitors at the provincial centers. Of
the 105 political parties, only 16 have the capacity to monitor the
registration process country-wide. In Luanda, 40 parties were able

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to accredit monitors, but they have had to share accredited monitors
in most areas outside Luanda.

8. (SBU) Comment: Minister of Territorial Administration Virgilio
Fontes Pereira also encouraged the small opposition parties to
consolidate if they are to have any expectation of political
influence or power in the future. Many of the small parties can be
characterized as "mom and pop" political parties, with a very
localized base, and no political platform. Many were formed at the
time of the 1992 elections in order to qualify for the government
stipends to parties. The GRA eliminated stipends to parties not
represented in Parliament in 1997. In addition, Angolan electoral
law requires that a political party collect signatures from each
province for the party to be registered for the upcoming election.
This requirement will reduce the number of political parties
drastically. End Comment.

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National Council for Social Communication Constituted
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9. The President of the Supreme Court, Cristiano Andre, swore-in
members of the newly constituted National Council for Social
Communication, on October 17, 2006. The Council will serve as the
supervisory body on mass media in Angola, and is tasked with
supervision of all media activities, both State and privately run.
It also must enforce the new press law regulations. The Council
will rule on questions arising on mass media issues and practices in
Angola. The Council is made up of 21 members representing the GRA
(3); the Supreme Court (1); MPLA (7); UNITA (4); PRS (1); PLD (1); 3
civil society members representing the main churches in Angola, and
3 journalists drawn from print, radio and television media.
Efird

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